Sunset Catamaran in Montego Bay: Three Reggae Boats, Very Different Ratings

Three of the reggae catamaran cruises sold from Montego Bay come from the same operator, Island Routes: €111.96, €111.96 and €111.96. They all run three hours, they all include hotel pickup, and they rate 4.6, 3.7 and 3.1 stars.

Same operator, same length, same coast. The spread is the whole story, and it is not about the boat.

The three boats

Reggae Sunset Catamaran Cruise — €111.96, 3 hours, 4.6 stars from 20 reviews. Hotel pickup and drop-off is included; the listing also names an open bar with hors d’oeuvres and gratuities, so check on the booking page that the bar and the tips are covered. The itinerary is a sail along the coastline, a snorkel stop at a reef, the sunset with drinks and appetisers, and a DJ on the way back. The operator lists it as unsuitable for people prone to motion sickness, pregnant women and people with mobility impairments. It asks you to bring biodegradable sunscreen — which is a good sign, not a formality, given where it anchors.

Reggae Catamaran 18+ Cruise with Open Bar — €111.96, 3 hours, 3.7 stars from 88 reviews. That is the most-reviewed of the catamarans in this article, so it is also the most tested. Its listing names hotel pickup, snorkelling equipment, an open bar and appetisers, a stop at Margaritaville with access to the activities there, and gratuities; check the booking page for whether the tips are covered. Minimum age is 18. The listing’s summary calls it wheelchair accessible, but its own notes say it is not, and it names wheelchair users, pregnant women and people with back, heart or mobility problems as unsuitable, so ask the operator before booking if that applies to you.

Reggae Family Catamaran Cruise with Snorkelling — €111.96, 3 hours, 3.1 stars from 10 reviews. The only boat here with “family” in the name, and the weakest rating of the three. Its listing says drinks, pastries, fruit and appetisers are available on board and mentions food and drinks at Margaritaville; whether that includes an open bar, and which of these are included, you can see on the booking page. And despite the name, it carries by far the longest not-suitable-for list of the three — pregnant women, back, heart and breathing problems, recent surgery, mobility impairments and motion sickness.

What the ratings are actually telling you

An open bar on a three-hour boat produces one of two afternoons depending on who booked it. The 18+ cruise has by far the most reviews and the middling score; the family version has the fewest and the worst. Neither number is really a verdict on the vessel.

What it means in practice: choose by the crowd, not by the price. If you want a party, the 18+ boat is honest about being one and its listing puts the minimum age at 18. If you want the sail and the light and a drink in your hand, the Reggae Sunset cruise is the one that reads that way in its own listing — hors d’oeuvres, a reef stop, a DJ on the return leg rather than throughout.

And if you are travelling with children, the family boat is not obviously the answer just because of its name. Montego Bay with kids goes through this in more detail; the short version is that one word in a title is weaker evidence than a rating from 10 reviewers.

Ask whether the three hours include the drive

This is the single most useful line in any of these listings, and it is in the 18+ one: “Tour duration is not inclusive of travel time to tour location.”

Hotel pickup is included on all three, but on the 18+ cruise the three hours start at the dock; ask whether the same applies to the other two. The road time to and from your hotel is on top, and on this coast that depends entirely on where you are staying — a Hip Strip hotel and a resort out towards Falmouth are not the same errand. Ask for the pickup time rather than working backwards from the sailing time, and do not book a dinner reservation against it.

When the sun actually goes down

Jamaica sits far enough south that the day barely changes length — and far enough north that it changes a little. In Montego Bay the sun sets at roughly 5:30pm in late November at the earliest and about 6:50pm in early July at the latest, with the shortest day just over eleven hours and the longest just over thirteen.

Two things follow. First, sunset here is early by European standards all year round, so an afternoon boat is not a late evening — you will be back at your hotel for dinner, not instead of it. Second, a three-hour cruise that leaves in the early afternoon will not be on the water at sunset at all. Ask what time the boat sails, not what the tour is called. The word “sunset” is in a great many titles here and it is not always in the schedule.

Where the boat goes

The snorkel stop is the part worth caring about. Montego Bay’s reefs sit inside the Montego Bay Marine Park, established in 1992 as Jamaica’s first marine protected area — roughly 16 square kilometres covering reef, seagrass and mangrove along more than 20 kilometres of shoreline. The protection is the reason there is anything to look at this close to a working town.

Snorkelling gear is included on the 18+ cruise. The Reggae Sunset and family listings describe a snorkel stop; check on their booking pages whether gear is included, and if you do not want to share a mask with a stranger, ask.

Margaritaville is the other common stop — a beach club on the Hip Strip, and the 18+ listing names it explicitly, including access to the activities there. Some people book the cruise for that stop. Others find a loud bar dropped into the middle of a sailing trip. Either way it is in the itinerary, not a surprise, so read it.

Other sunset sails

There are 13 offers on our sunset tours page from €33.14, but most of the cheap end is not a boat — it is a minibus to a viewpoint. A different sail is in Negril: the Rick’s Café sunset catamaran cruise at €80.61 (the Reggae Sunset cruise is €111.96), listed at 4 to 6 hours with a four-hour cruise, 4.5 stars from 25 reviews. It picks up from listed resorts in Montego Bay and Negril, sails from Seven Mile Beach to a coral reef for snorkelling and then to Rick’s Café for about an hour; if the sea is too rough to dock there, the listing says you are taken by bus after the cruise. Meals, drinks on land and tips also appear in its list, so check what is extra before you compare prices. Its own description calls it an adults-only trip for guests over 18, so it is not the family answer either. It is a different day out and it is covered in Negril and Rick’s Café.

Dearer catamaran bundles exist too, and almost all of those carry no reviews at all. Paying more here does not buy a measured improvement; it buys a longer bundle with a raft trip or a lagoon bolted on.

Booking it

Take the Reggae Sunset cruise at €111.96 if you want the sail. Take the 18+ cruise at €111.96 if you want the party and you would rather nobody’s children were there for it. If a three-hour catamaran out of Montego Bay costs more than these, check what the bundle adds — the dearer bundles are mostly unrated.

Whichever you pick, ask the sailing time before you pay, and remember that the three hours are measured from the dock. The rest of what floats here is under boat trips, 41 of them from €16.12.